Approved supplier for iTunes

I’m thrilled to announce that Binary Feedback is now an official supplier for Apple’s Mastered For iTunes program.

Using a quality procedure I approved with Apple HQ, I am able to prepare final masters that will sound fantastic in iTunes.  But it also means that your product will be badged as a Mastered For iTunes (MFiT) release, which understandably they feature prominently on their store.

It needn’t mean that the hi-resolution master audio would be made to sound any different for iTunes.  In fact the goal is to keep it as perceptibly close to the source as possible, monitoring the output of their unique compression algorithm to ensure the maximum amount of clarity and detail is retained on what is arguably the world’s most popular music download store today.

To find out more about the Mastered For iTunes program and whether it’s a good choice for your release, you are very welcome to email mastering@binaryfeedback.com to discuss your requirements with me.

Cutting Emika with Simon Davey

Simon Davey Cutting Emika LP

As all the coolest cats already know, Emika has very recently flown from the Ninja nest and started her own music label.
Here at Binary Feedback we’re of course absolutely stoked to stay involved with this diverse artist as she continues her musical voyages. But equally happy to suggest and hook up with the one and only lathe LEGEND Mr Simon Davey (The Exchange) to handle the lacquer cutting from our digital premasters.

Simon is both a very humble and a very humbling guy, and it’s been great to hang out and ‘talk shop’. Even in a few sessions I feel I’ve gleaned a lot of insight into the world of vinyl translation especially on LPs where I have a lot less experience.   However a bit of a bombshell was dropped on our last session.  The Exchange was to shut its doors after nearly three decades of cutting excellence in Camden, London.

Here’s some words from the man himself.

It doesn’t happen often, but if I’m lucky, every now and again I have the privilege to work on music that not only has on board a great artist, but an amazing writer, producer, mix engineer and mastering engineer all in one neat, tight sounding package.

Every time I press ‘play’ at the start of a new Emika vinyl mastering session I think ‘Hey she’s done it again, she’s flipped it and come up with something new!’.

I have been lucky enough now to work on a few of Emika’s vinyl releases and along side me during every session has been Rich from Binary Feedback. I realised straight away that he has an extremely important role to play as mastering engineer to Emika’s music, and is a master of post production, capable of achieving both dramatic and fine subtleties during the mastering.
Like I said, it doesn’t happen often but when you hear a perfect pairing of talents, it’s beautiful. Emika’s music and Rich’s mastering skills go together like hand in glove.

Before the original Exchange mastering studios moved location, which incidentally may I say, has now expanded into three, separately run studios, I was lucky enough to cut the vinyl of Emika’s ‘Klavirni’.
This is a perfect example of a ‘vinyl friendly’ sound. Klavirni just goes to prove that if you get the recording, mixing and digital mastering right, and master it to vinyl properly you should have yourself a great sounding piece of vinyl.

Check the album out!

As we speak ‘The Exchange Vinyl’ studio is being lovingly put together with all the original Exchange analogue, valve equipment which is being overhauled and reinstated in its new home. Hopefully I will be ready to cut some great sounding records by March. If you would like to have your vinyl cut in the UK’s only professional ‘vinyl only’ mastering studio, I would love to do it for you.

After nearly thirty years of being a slave to the lathe I still get goosebumps putting the needle in the groove and listening to how my clients music changes for the better on wax. It’s like listening to the music for the very first time!

Simon Davey
The Exchange Vinyl
simon@theexchangevinyl.london

Cutting Emika with Simon DaveySo I guess we were pretty fortunate to be able to have cut one of the very last LPs at The Exchange in Camden.  You can listen and download one preview track from the LP here courtesy of DJMAG.

The Klavirni LP will be available – on vinyl with an accompanying printed score book, from Emika Records on 26th January 2015.

PREORDER VINYL, CD, DIGITAL from BOOMKAT

PREORDER DIGITAL from iTUNES

Ten Years of Combat

Combat Recordings label boss Stormfield assembles this monstrous horde to commemorate a decade of pure dirt.
Pulling in surprise submissions by LEGENDARY artists such as Milanese, Scorn and the Frankenstein-like reanimation of King Cannibal, as well as Combat regulars ScanOne, TheWeeDJs, Cursor Minor and Anodyne.
2 hours of dark, brutal punishment and bleak-bient mastered here for digital release.

Here’s a quick highlight reel.

You can order the compilation from all the usual digital stores, as well as direct from the label via http://combatrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/ten-years-of-combat

Surprise Father’s Day release

As if by magic, the freebie appeared.
This release marks the 10 year anniversary of when The Whispering Minority first confronted the mystery of their clouded genealogy over a chilled trip-hop groove.
The answers blew back in the breeze.

TINA’s For Turning

Tina's for turning 2 300If Unsound System ever had a day job, now would be the time to give it up.

Established in ’88, Unsound System are a long-term collective of types who will be going all the way.  And when they get there, the sound will be fully turned on. From London squat freedom to the open beaches of Italy, Unsound have reclaimed space and partied relentlessly. This latest foray into less ephemeral reality is welcomed.

This manifestation of the Unsound vibe will be used to help finance a low impact land reclaim/community project in Italy . …I don’t think we’re gonna change anything by writing and singing(sic) songs, but by getting active and beating the fuckers at their own game while land is still cheap enough to buy it. It won’t be for long. As the super rich get more and more, pretty soon they will own everything. Land in the UK is anything from £1000 an acre to buy. In the eyes of this system you will own it. Abroad land is also relatively cheap. We ain’t gonna get it by squatting it. The clampdown is on, robocops beating the crap out of demonstrators with impunity. Killing people no problem, even stitching up M.P’s – the lawmakers, ahahahha and the lawmakers themselves making laws for themselves – Give it a few years and the super rich will own it all. A million pounds an acre within twenty years. Bought with fractional reserved non existent money. The land is all there is.

This project is set up to continue building a low impact land based community in Southern Italy. The 2.5 acres of land that is part of this project has now been fully organic for ten years and is slowly being replanted as a food forest. Unsound System innit.

 

Behind the Planets…

Beyond Planets CoverIf you were born at the tail end of the 70s or later, you would be excused if you’d never heard about the band Naked Lunch. In their first active years between 79-85, you could count their single releases on the fingers of one hand. However the band had substantial and loyal underground following with a lot of press, radio and TV attention, stemming from their electrifying live shows but also for their encyclopedic knowledge of the burgeoning electronic dance music scene they were a key component of.

Singer/writer Tony Mayo was instrumental in working with fellow DJ Stevo to A&R and assemble a compilation that defined the electronic sound of the eighties. Released in 1981, the Some Bizzare Album saw Naked Lunch’s dark arpeggio-driven ‘La Femme’ alongside other artists from the scene including Depeché Mode, Soft Cell, The The and Blancmange. While Naked Lunch did not quite reach the “household name” status that some of their contemporaries would go on to enjoy, it’s clear from their history that they were an innovative, powerful force in the development of a growing and important music scene in the UK.

Fast-forward a couple of decades and Tony Mayo and Paul Davies decide to reform the band to play at the BAS II festival. The show is a great success with many of their original fans excitedly attending, prompting a veritable army of followers on Facebook clambering for new dates and new material. It’s time finally, after 30 years, to make the debut album. Beyond Planets.

I was introduced to Tony through Naked Lunch guitarist Paul Davies and collaborator Jay Payne, who I have worked closely with in the past with their Sunkings project. We had a brief meeting at Paul’s to listen to some new material, and I knew it was going to be an interesting project to work on.

This would be the first time that Naked Lunch would work on mixes remotely, so a lot of trust was involved as well as lot of liaisons between myself and the band. Recorded material would come in one song at a time, along with Tony’s notes regarding creative development and direction. Despite some explicit instructions for each piece, I was allowed an unusual amount of creative freedom in producing the final mixes. Far from being a straightforward level, EQ and compression job, I would also at points program new layers of sound to add depth and texture, even inserting entirely new parts and tweaking arrangements. At times dehumanising the natural performances, pushing the songs further into a deep dancefloor groove and at other times teasing out the raw punk elements and adding a touch more organic life to the sequenced electronics. With a number of songs that their old-school fans have been living with for 30 years, we were obviously treading a very thin line between keeping the underlying spirit of the originals and also keeping the new versions fresh and relevant to a brand new generation of fans. Here, the input of new band recruit Jet Noir, synth player and backing vocalist extraordinaire proved invaluable. Jet knew the original songs well but was also stepping up with her own contemporary objectivity.

As new versions of their songs were released as singles, they prompted swathes of very positive comments from both fans old and new, as well as the underground radio and music press. In fact as the project progressed, I think the great feedback encouraged us to steer the songs even further into uncharted waters rather than stick religiously to the roots.

This is the first time that Binary Feedback have been so deeply involved in an album project, proving additional programming and edits, mixing and also mastering the CD and download release for the album. It’s been intense but highly rewarding experience, being relied upon as a technical professional but also being welcomed as part of the creative team.

The lloonnngg awaited album Beyond Planets is available right now to stream in full for free, or to purchase as CD or download directly from Naked Lunch here > http://nakedlunch1.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-planets, also available from mainstream stores such as iTunes, Amazon and 7digital.

Mastering ‘Dva’ for Emika and Ninja Tune

Emika - DvaI’m absolutely thrilled to announce our involvement in Emika’s second long player for Ninja Tune.

Emika was very keen to distance herself from the typical bright / forced ‘upfront’ sound that has been dominating the majority of electronic releases for many years. Instead, the songs lend themselves to much darker, deeper presentation with a thick, warm bass and mid-range decorated with a delicate, yet clear top-end detail. With such a broad range of influences and instrumentation involved, we agreed it was imperative to maintain an immense sense of scale across the LP, bringing the various works together as a single piece of art without homogenising their individuality.

In a marketplace dominated by band-wagon mimicry, it’s certainly refreshing to work with an artist that’s not afraid to stand alone on her own terms.

I have been working very closely with Emika to master projects across her whole campaign. The CD and download release versions of course, but also an entirely unique set of pre-masters for the vinyl version, instrumentals ready for tv/movie sync, various bonus materials including the Klavirni EP of intimate piano performances, some exclusive dubs, singles, radio edits, video mixes and also as a sonic adviser for her live show.

I feel truly blessed to work with both Emika and Ninja, look forward to working together in the future and raise a glass to toast the arrival of this superb LP.

Emika – Dva is out now, directly from Ninja and from ‘all good’ record shops.

B.F. now on Bandcamp…

Our entire catalogue is now available to download in one handy place.  And in a surprising moment of generosity, you can pay whatever you like (even nowt.)  Must be the sun cheering us up :)

Exclusive to Bandcamp is a reissue of ‘We Are The Prophets’ by Hue Jah Fink, which contains a previously unreleased roller of a remix from M2J (SubFM, L2S, Yellow Machines), as well as a high quality download of the video directed by creative visionary Dan Moss.

What are you waiting for?  http://binaryfeedback.bandcamp.com/